In 1995, Fujishima Mineko and Shimada Osamu met each other through a newspaper advert looking to start a band. The following year, they recorded and were able to participate on a Pony Canyon compilation album. They released their first indie album in 1997 and rose to #2 on the HMV Shibuya charts. Swinging Popsicle continues to release singles, albums, and mini-albums. They distribute some of their music through JapanFiles.com, an online music distributor of Japanese indie rock bands. Their song “Satetsu no tou,” track 4 from “fennec!” is the character image song for Akiha Tohno, one of the characters in Tsukihime, a visual novel game that became an anime and manga series. Summer 2006, Swinging Popsicle’s new song “Kanashii Shirabe (Sad Melody)” appeared on “CRACKER: compilation for a bittersweet love story,” a CD that came with a Korean manga “Cracker.” In May 2006, the band played their first gig in the United States at the FanimeCon Musicfest in the Civic Auditorium in San Jose, California. They used American drummer Nolan Stolz (Art Rock Circus, L.Zaide, Coalition) for that concert, as well as their September 2, 2006 concert in Tokyo. They returned to America in June 2007 for concerts at Anime Mid-Atlantic in Richmond, Virginia and at the Knitting Factory in New York City. |
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